I Got Yo Bench!!!

I'm back with another master bedroom update. We needed somewhere, besides our bed, to sit down and put on our shoes; and a place to throw all of our fru fru pillows when its time to go nite nite. Soooooo, I got the creative juices flowing and gathered a couple of the scrap pieces of wood from my living room console table project...

I just had the lovely guys at Home Depot rip down a 4' x 8' sheet of ply﻿wood down into four 16" x 54" strips. The leftover pieces just so happened to be the perfect sizes for the legs of console table and and a bench. So with a couple of screws and wood glue, I threw the pieces together.

If you're looking at the picture above, you'll notice that there are a few extra pieces of wood thrown in there. Well, once I sat on the bench once it was put together like the console table, of course it didn't hold my 155 lb frame. So, I headed to HD, again, and picked up a couple of $2.00 1" x 4" pieces (and had them cut to size before I left). And with more screws and wood glue, we finally had supports for the bench that could hold not only me, but also the hubby.﻿ Yay!

But, it was at this point that Mr. Marcus told me that he would never sit on it if I didn't "get some soft stuff to go on top of it". So, I grabbed the fabric left over from the headboard project and ﻿started to think of how I could upholster this thing.

I promise you...the bench sat (sans soft stuff) for almost 2 weeks in our bed room. I knew how I wanted it to look, I just couldn't find the motivation (or the extra money) to do it. It would've taken 5' of 2" thick foam ($60 if I bought it at WalMart), a couple layers of batting (already had on hand), nail heads/upholstery tacks ($20), and a little spray adhesive ($4), and a SEWING MACHINE($$$!!!) Child, please!!! I know buying a sewing machine could be a pretty good "investment" considering how I love a good DIY project. But I wasn't willing to take the plunge on this project. Ruining the last little bit of fabric I had on hand was NOT an option. Now, if I went out and bought all of these materials, I would've been out of at least $85-$285; not to mention the time and frustration it would've taken to get the bench to look EXACTLY how I wanted.

Insert [here] a quick visit to the UPHOLSTER!

I was pleasantly surprised to find one actually in Poplar Bluff. (There are NO fabric stores, but we have an upholster...yeah.) All I did was drop off the bench and fabric (after I gave the sides a couple coats of spray paint), told him how I wanted it to look and that I wanted him to add nail head trim. And $70 and less than 24 hours later, I got this!!!

Ain't it PURTY!?!?!﻿ I loooove it! And it doesn't hurt that its more than a little comfortable.

﻿Now, you know I pride myself on being a cheapo. But in this particular instance, I thought that my sanity and patience were definitely worth the $70...especially, since I wouldn't been out of more money if I did it myself.

Aaaannnnddd...I know it wouldn't have looked this good...even if I spent every waking moment on it.

So, that's our newest addition to the bedroom. A big thanks goes out to Jeff Allen at Ellison & Allen Furniture, here in Poplar Bluff. He was super nice and couldn't have done a better job. We've had it for a few days, now, and﻿ Mr. Marcus has given his two thumbs up. I'm glad his butt approves. So do you guys have a thing about sitting on the bed? Do you have a special place to put on your shoes or throw your clothes at the end of a long day? Share and share alike!